AN The puppetmaster is one of my favorite episodes from the ATLA series. I find it a great loss that I cannot include Hama in my story. With that in mind, the way that I am going to include bloodbending in my story is going to take a dark turn because Katara has no one to teach her the control needed for bloodbending.
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The days waiting for the full moon passed slowly. We both tried to keep our daily lives as normal as possible while part of the night was always devoted to fighting. More and more, Zuko has been sneaking up behind me, wrapping his arms around me, placing his hands on my stomach, and kissing my neck. He has really embraced the possibility of a child but I believe that are also hoping that I am not pregnant. Whatever the outcome, we agree that we need to find my friends. The only way that we both feel confident in raising this child is if the war is over and balance is restored. To have a chance of that, Aang needs a firebending teacher and who better to do it than Zuko?
Zuko and I have many conversations dealing with where in the world my friends are. We both have taken wild guesses as to where we think they may have ended up. Zuko's wildest guess was the impenetrable Boiling Rock prison while I have said that they have been glaciale hopping in the South Pole. But we both agreed that since the battle in Ba Sing Se, the best place to start is within the Fire Nation colonies because, odds are, if they wear the right disguise, no one would be able to recognize them. Since the colonies are part of the Fire Nation, there will be less soldiers since there won't be a worry of revolt. Also, Aang needs to find a Firebending teacher before he can properly master the Avatar State and be able to defeat the Firelord to end the war. Zuko has been traveling with his Uncle long enough as the disgraced Fire Prince to know ways onto the islands that won't ask any questions and from there, we'll just jump islands until we are able to find the Gaang.
We obviously need some supplies so we can get to the Fire Colonies. Each day, we are taking a little bit extra from the kitchens and storing it in a corner of Zuko's room. The night that we do leave, we will split the supplies between us in case we are separated at any point in time. We each will have enough food to last us 3 days, a sleeping mat, and a combination of coins so we will be able to buy goods we need.
On one of his trips out of the palace Zuko was able to find water skins. While they are shaped like the ones I normally carry, that is where the similarities end. The skins are nothing like the seal lions that I know, In fact the texture makes them seem more as if they came from some sort of fish. As long as they hold water, there will be no issue.
When Zuko gifts them to me, he requests that I sit down,
"Katara, we need to talk."
"What about Zuko?"
"The herbs, I knew they had ones that blocked bending but the birth control ones slipped my mind. Do we need to bring some with us?"
"What do you mean, why wouldn't we?"
"Well it raises the question of do you want to continue this affair and do you know yet if you are pregnant or not."
"No, I am not sure yet but I felt that what was between us was enjoyable so I see no reason as to why we would not continue this."
With that, Zuko pulls me into a passionate kiss, "I am glad that you agree with me. I'll work on getting some brought up to my room. There is no reason since you live in here, that they would object to that."
"Zuko quick question, how are your survival skill. I am fine at cooking with what I have available to me but Sokka was always the one to hunt and start the fire for me. Especially for the tea, Zuko how will we start the fire for the tea?!" Zuko takes a moment just to stare at me after my little freakout.
"Katara, you do realize that you are asking a firebender if he can start a fire?"
"Oh right," I say feeling foolish. "I guess I am just looking for any reason to freak out."
"It'll be fine, we will get out of the city and find your friends. Once we do that I will train Aang so he can beat my father. We can do this."
I have had no face to face run-ins with Azula since the time where she called me Zuko's pet. The most that I have seen of her is when she is training in one of the many courtyards of the palace. She is truly terrifying to watch. I would never want to fight her if I was not at full strength. I know that I have nothing said anything to hint of our departure but with Azula, that does not mean much. She always seems to know how to be at the right place at the right time. If anything, she is not going to rat us out because she will want to be the one to drag us back to the Fire Nation to show us to her father. Because of her need to be the best Fire sibling, there is little worry that anyone in the palace will be catching on to our plan before we actually make it over the Fire Palace wall.
Finally, the day comes that we will be making a run for it. We pack bags with what we were able to grab. They contain a change of clothes, sleeping mats, a small stash a food, and all the money we think we could use. Zuko has his blades and a knife and I have the waterskins he had gotten me. They will work long enough until we find the Gaang and I get the ones that I have been carrying with me since Sokka and I left the Southern Water Tribe with Aang.
On the day of the full moon, Zuko and I sit in his room and chat.
"I can't believe that we are so close to getting out of here. We'll be able to help the war effort again."
"You are the one that gets to say again, I just have to hope that your friends accept my help. After all, I did hunt them for quite a while. I wanted to kill the Avatar to regain my honor."
"You really don't have to call Aang the Avatar formally. You are going to help in his training. The Gaang doesn't have many other options when it comes to Firebending masters. I trust you and that will help immensely as well. I will give them no other options but to trust you."
"That is so very kind of you but will your words do it?"
"They'll have to. If we do have a child coming in a time of war, they are the best family that we both will have. And it is not like I would let them hurt you. They will not be happy with it at first but they will have to learn to deal with it. Did you remember to get the tea leaves?"
"Oh, I am so glad you asked. I had them bring up a month's worth. We can always buy more when we are on the road if or when the need arises."
I bite my lip and look at him and say, "If, I really hope it is when. Should I take some now?"
"As much as I would love that, I think rest is more important than anything because who knows how long we will be moving this evening."
After night falls, we wait an extra hour to ensure that the majority of people have gone to their rooms for the night.
With full waterskins strapped to my back and Zuko's swords strapped to his, I pull water from the turtle duck pond and make an ice ramp to get over the wall without incident. Once we are over, an entirely new story begins. There are two guards on us right away. They rush Zuko and seem to ignore me. With a quick flurry of fists, Zuko is able to take them down without even taking out his swords.
While fighting, Zuko suddenly shouts my name. I look to him but he has gone back to fighting. I then turn around because I hear the clatter of armor. Behind me I see two guards coming to join the fight. For wanting to keep it discreet, these soldiers are able to easily get the word out of people escaping. One would think that they would be more worried about people getting into the palace instead of those who are running to get away from it. I freeze the fighters to the outer wall of the palace in a way to prevent them from bending their way out of their bindings. I put the leftover water back in my makeshift water skins but I seem to be missing more water than I used on the soldiers. Maybe these new waterskins are not working as well as we thought they would. It seems as if the water is slowly leaking out the more I move.
We run from the palace without any more incidents. That does not mean much because we still have to make it out of the Capital. By now, all the guards seem to know about the two escapees from the palace. There must have been a messenger hawk sent to the gates. We can only hope that they have not realized who they are yet. Zuko has not used his bending so we might be able to get out of the city without anyone realizing that the crown prince is helping a prisoner escape but since I must be the only water bender in the Fire Nation capital with the war going on around us, I can only hope that they think I found some random non-bending person from the palace.
We finally reach the outskirts of the dormant volcano that is the Fire Nation capital. We choose to head to one of the smaller passages out of the city because the walls protecting it are just too high to scale or create our own way out. The only thing left before we are safe now is one guard tower. Since there are so many ways in and out of the city, they have to equally staff all the towers because they have no clue which one we will head to. Of course, we are not going out of the main gate, but that does not mean that there still are not plenty of people we will have to get through before we can get out.
As soon as we approach the tower, balls of fire are shot at us. We are able to dodge between the smaller ones and the ones that would assuredly hit us and cause damage, Zuko is able to use his bending to redirect the shot just enough so it doesn't hit us but still looks as if he doesn't have any type of bending. The gate begins to close. I take the last of my water out of my water skin and freeze it between the gates so Zuko and I will still be able to slip through. There is not much water left; most of it must have sloshed out when we were running towards our final destination. I will just have to switch hand to hand combat until we are out.
The fight was going as smoothly as one could expect it to, Zuko with his blades and, surprisingly, me with my hands and feet. I was able to incapacitate most of my foes quickly or just send them towards him. While there was a break in the fighting for me, I see a soldier come up behind Zuko while he is fighting two others in front of him. Zuko is clueless to the danger that stands so close to him. I cannot let him be hurt. I will not be alone in this world. The man that I must protect could be a father in less than a year, he would be a willing teacher to the Avatar, he could be the reason that the right side wins the war. To protect him, I reach out for the nearest source of water that is not my ice wedge.
Before I know it, the sword-wielding soldier behind Zuko drops his weapon with an audible clang and starts to twitch. In this moment Zuko is safer but it does not mean that the soldiers will stop coming. I keep reaching for the water source. My brow starts to spasm. Normally I would think nothing of it because that always happens if I'm struggling to pull water from a far distance away from me but I can feel how close this water is to me. I am surprised that I can't see it, it feels that close. I continue to try to pull the water to me.
The next thing that happens is a surprise to all that are around. Suddenly, that soldier starts bleeding through all of his visible orifices. I am still pulling for that source of water to come to me. Luckily the man bleeding is a distraction enough for Zuko to disarm the other soldiers. Again, more soldiers run towards us. The difference this time is that there is now a huge ball of blood floating in the air. The soldier that was bleeding is now not moving on the ground and some of his comrades have run to him. I realize that the mass of blood happens to be the water that I am controlling, but the gravity of what I did and where it really came from does not really register in my mind.
Seeing no other options, I use the blood to fight against the rest of the soldiers. I make two quick water whips and remove the weapons from all the soldiers hands. None of soldiers continue to attack and some even run from us. Since no more fighters come at us, we are able to run through the gate with no more resistance. With that, I melt the ice wedge. As the gate closes, so does Zuko's and my connection to the Fire Nation.
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AN 2.0: If you couldn't tell, I am back! This chapter literally took months to write but hopefully none will have to fight with my school schedule for a while. That being said, I am working 40 hours a week and taking a 3 hour class this summer but hopefully I will finish this part of my story before I have to go back to school.